French Jew attacked outside synagogue

PARIS (JTA) — A 21-year-old student was severely beaten near his synagogue in southern France after acknowledging to his attackers that he was Jewish.

After leaving a synagogue in the town of Villeurbanne, near Lyon, on April 7, the victim was confronted by two men in their early 20s who insulted him and asked him if he was Jewish. When the victim, whose name has not been released to the media, did not deny his religious affiliation, the two men attacked him in the head and upper body with a pellet gun and a club, according to police reports.

The victim spent the night in the hospital and was treated for head, stomach and arm wounds. He was released the following day. Police are searching for the attackers.

Marcel Amsellem, president of the CRIF Jewish umbrella group in the southeastern Rhone-Alpes region, said the Jewish community there was seriously concerned about the "horrifying act." The local mayor also condemned the incident.

Devorah Lauter is a JTA Paris correspondent. She has written and worked for the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press Paris bureaus, and is a regular contributor to The New Waver Quarterly, which covers French culture. Lauter is currently completing a master's thesis at Saint Denis University on the relationship between Jewish and Muslim youth in Parisian low-income suburbs, as well as a collection of true stories on a Jewish and Muslim mixed gang.